


Passive Surveillance

by dremiel



Series: AELDWS Round 10: Lightning Challenge: Fall 2016 [2]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Arthur's life is so hard, Community: ae_ldws, Drabble, Eavesdropping, Epistolary, Established Relationship, Fluffy socks, M/M, On the Run, Surveillance, Texting, aeldws, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 13:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7977850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dremiel/pseuds/dremiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Honestly, Sir, we thought they were just trolling us.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Passive Surveillance

**Author's Note:**

> Submission for Week 2 of the [Arthur/Eames Last Drabble Writer Standing Round 10: Lightning Challenge Fall 2016.](http://ae-ldws.livejournal.com) Many thanks to [EternalSojourn](http://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalsojourn/pseuds/eternalsojourn) for beta-reading, support, and well-timed flopping.
> 
> Genre: epistolary fic (can be canon or AU)  
> Prompt: low grade  
> Word count: between 300 to 350 words*

  


TRANSNATIONAL MINDCRIME UNIT: NONSTATE ACTORS  
COMMUNICATIONS CAPTURE 11 AUGUST 2016 00:43:23 GMT  
Arthur, Daniel Matthew. 73% certainty  
Eames, Edward Calvin. 96% certainty  
Threat Assessment: Low grade  
Risk to Apprehend: Unacceptable

 

\---BEGIN INTERCEPT---

 

00:43:23 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Unsecured line but need to talk. Urgent.**

 

00:43:36 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_wrong number_

 

00:44:02 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Open Whisper key compromised. Surveillance on Wickr.**

 

00:44:17 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_sorry — who’s this_

 

00:44:41 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**My mom knit you fluffy blue and purple socks.**

 

00:44:54 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_go on…_

 

00:45:33 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**JFC! I have about four minutes.**

**It was Instanbul but you'd say Constantinople because you're a retro-romantic sap. Afterwards, you blamed the breeze off the Bosphorus, I blamed the raki. We were fucking cowards.**

 

00:46:09 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_safeword_

 

00:46:26 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**We. Never. Use. It.**

 

00:46:35 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_nevertheless_

 

00:46:57 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Avocado. Also, you're a dick.**

 

00:47:13 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_so you’ve said — darling — WTH happened_

 

00:47:33 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Lem burned us. Morgan and Huang detained. I’m fine. Pissed off. Had to leave my loden jacket behind.**

 

00:48:04 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_in future use of ‘loden’ sufficient to establish bona fides — aborting plans to fuck shit up and/or burn shit down — rendezvous at the place with the thing_

 

00:48:31 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Is this a Sorkin script? The place with the thing inadvisable with ID available. I can get to the place with that bathtub you like.**

 

00:48:52 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_roger that — rendezvous in bathtub — caution please — bathtub does not appeal without you_

 

00:49:07 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**Nothing appeals without you.**

 

00:49:23 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_now who's the sap — fancy a bit of sexting so the NSA grunt can get off at work_

 

00:49:34 312.555.4013 to +44.7700.900077  
**NSA grunt can suck my cock.**

 

00:49:57 +44.7700.900077 to 312.555.4013  
_NSA grunt should be so lucky_

_NOTE TO NSA GRUNT — WANK ON YOUR OWN TIME — SOD OFF!_

 

\---END INTERCEPT---

**Author's Note:**

> * A note about word count. Wow. This one was all over the place. Various word count programs peg this ficlet at 322, 344, 446, or 497 words depending on how the different scripts read the timestamp strings preceding each text message. I was getting such wildly different counts that I asked the mods to confirm that their official word count program for the challenge gave them the same results I was getting (332 words). In the end that's what I had to run with. Crazy-making stuff to be sure.


End file.
